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The Madness Series/Paradox
|} Table of Contents: Part I |''' Part II '''| Part III |''' Epilogue Part I Golly. What a few days that was. Still in charge of Hewkii-Macku stuffed toy duty, I clamber out of the train, taking care to not bump the top of my head on the Agori-sized door. With the rest of my team trailing, we make good time to Haven’s residential area. It’ll be great to feel our usual mattresses after the trip. Falling onto your own bed after a vacation is an irreplaceable feeling. It’s like diving into a tub of whipped cream. Simply exquisite. Then you roll around a bit. Get that feeling all over you. And then its lost. Finally, you wish you hadn’t rolled around so much and regret ever hitting the sack. Anyways. The townspeople of Haven all part before us, giving us cheerful waves or nods, happy to have their Toa back. We, in turn, send them our greetings. Except for Tsukumi. Typical grumpy-Water-Toa behaviour. The afternoon sun blinds us as we head out from the relatively shaded station out into the open. It’s nowhere near as hot as the tropical Faxis Beach, but you could feel the summer heat pound on you. Time for the long walk home. ---- Haven’s streets are like potatoes. Why, might you ask? Well. You know how a potato is a staple food source for a lot of people? Well. It’s kind of like that. These roads are a vital part of life- Ok, I’ll stop. Yellow brick roads, lined with iconic shops selling everything from the bare necessities to the bizarre and wondrous. I believe this is… I crane my neck back a bit… Mata Boulevard. Oh, and there were a lot of little people. Some were browsing the shops, having a blast with some new fad called “window shopping”. It was getting really popular amongst the Ga- and Vo- and the few Ce-Matoran here on Xeno Nui. The female Agori, too. Some were napping on the benches spaced at even intervals all along the road, the sun’s gentle warmth lulling them into a deep sleep. Still others were wandering around, doing whatever it was villagers do. Jaywalking, picking their noses, that sort of thing. And there was one final contingent of townsmen who didn’t fall into any of those categories. Those would be the many tens of townspeople cheering as my group of Toa return to Haven. To home. Truth be told, reactions were mixed in our group. Anzix and Kaixin were loving it. They elbowed themselves in front of me and waved back, cheering along with the Matoran and Agori. Amea hung near the back, a slightly sour look on her mask, clearly annoyed by all the noise. And Tsukumi, “Mary”, and I? Eh. Well. We could take or leave it, all this attention. And now Anzix was giving out autographs, signing everything from slips of paper to foreheads. Ridiculous. We’re Toa, not movie stars. Let people like Thom Sail handle this sort of fame. “C’mere, Anzix, move alon- Oh? Who do we have here?” “Xaedan, let’s go,” Tsukumi moans with a lengthy yawn. “I haven’t slept a wink last night or on the train and I’m so tired, I want to throw up.” When Tsukumi threatens to eject bodily fluids, man, oh man, you know you’ve got an emergency on your hands. “Ok, fine, fine. You guys go on without me. Don’t spill it, Tsukumi. You’re a big girl, now.” With a wave of my hand, I dismiss my team. “Don’t take long now, Xae,” “Mary” quips with a twitch of her tail as she turns away and follows the others as they head down Emerald Avenue. “So,” I begin anew. “Who do we have here?” Well, allow me to answer my own question. There’s a petite Ga-Matoran wearing a Pakari. And she’s familiar. I can’t quite put my finger on where I’ve seen her before… but I know this isn’t the first time we’ve met. Jeez, the little people all look so similar. “Uh, I was the Matoran who gave you that flower… Name’s Seras? Remember me...?” “Aha! She speaks! I’ll have you know, I still have that rose. It’s a bit wilted, sure, but I kept it.” The Ga-Matoran smiles broadly. “That’s great to know. Say, Toa, mind helping me out with something?” I sigh with a hint of a wry grin on mask. Taking a page out of Tsukumi’s book, yes, I’m just as tired as she is. But, at the end of the day, Toa are Toa and Matoran are Matoran. We live to serve. “Of course, Seras, fire away. No pun intended.” “Ok, so, so, a bunch of my friends went to the south Poplar Forest Hills for a camp. Great place, by the way. Found all sorts of thing, like, um… There was a deciduous fox’s den… Yeah, and we found a Earth Gafna… and a pile of Muaka droppings...” “Yes?” I gently motion for the Matoran to get back on track. She clears her throat. “Anyways. Yeah. I left something really important there, and it’d be great if I could have some assistance with that. You know, find it.” Understandable. I’ve always lost all sorts of things as a Matoran. Thank Mata Nui “Mary” has long-term memory. I nod. “Sure, I can help. Or, better yet, I’ll grab the rest of the team. After all, we’re all wide-awake and rarin’ to go!” I stifle a yawn. “Great” the Matoran replied brightly. “Be on the lookout for a stick.” Suddenly, I feel the urge to barf. “A… stick?” I can only imagine the look of disgust on my mask right now. “No, hear me out!” Seras laughs. “Do you know what a walking stick is?” I immediately think of the cane that old Po-Matoran was using. With a quick glance at this sprightly Ga-Matoran, I eject that image from my head. That couldn’t be right. “Maybe you know them as trekking poles? But walking stick sounds so much better,” the Ga-Matoran continues. “Uh. Then, I’m guessing a trekking pole is something you’d use to help yourself walk during a tough trail?” “Yeah! Exactly. I had mine carved with the names of all my buddies and I’d hate to lose it. We spent almost a week up there and that’s really the only thing I can bring home. I forgot my camera at home, sadly.” “Yeah, sure. I’ll wake up the other guys and we can be on our way.” Seras raises a finger. “Didn’t you say you were, I quote, rarin’ to go? And why would the others be sleeping? It’s noon.” I laugh. “Some of us, apparently, need sleep to control their digestive systems.” ---- “Up! Up and at ‘em! Come on, Bubbles! Leeeettt’s go!” Stop. There are several things wrong with this scene. Ok. Let’s take a step back here. A big step back. First. I’m snuggled deep beneath a mountain of quilts sleeping. After just fifteen minutes of shut-eye, I’m yelled at to get up. That’s the first issue. Second. It’s Xaedan who’s yelling at me. Tremendous problem, will be rectified shortly. Third. He isn’t just screaming from outside the front door. No. He’s at my bedroom window, hollering at the top of his lungs. I don’t know how he got that high, and I really, really don’t care. He’s gonna have to prepare for a long fall when I get over there. And fourth. “What did you just call me, maggot?” “Nothing, Zucchini. Step it up, we’ve got places to be.” That fire-spitter. That maggot. He is so dead. Fumbling around with eyes still resolutely shut, I grab the closest thing I can wrap my fingers around and hurl it, hopefully towards the window. There is a bit of silence after my throw. Did I do it? Did I hit Xaedan? I didn’t hear any thumps or grunts of pain... “Kaixin was right. Winston is pretty cute.” Super ultra great delicious wonderful crap. I jump to my feet. “Give him back! Gimme Winston back!” “Will you come with us if I do?” I grunt. “I won’t kill you if you give him back.” Xaedan drops my teddy bear as if it were a red-hot bar of iron. I scuttle over and inspect Winston. No bits of fluff missing, check. No broken stitches, check. “Count yourself lucky, maggot,” I grumble at him with narrowed eyes. “If even one, just one, thread was outta place, I’d have killed you a hundred times over by now.” Xaedan just cocks his head. “You’re an interesting person, Tsukumi.” I stop cuddling Winston and look up. “What?” “Well, I mean, one minute you’re like a kid, begging for a stuffed toy. Then you threaten to murder me.” With a huff, I knock him off his feet with a well-aimed blast of water. And this time around, I give a satisfied nod as I hear the thud when he landed on the ground below. Well, I am wide awake now, no point in going back to bed. Might as well go along with whatever stupid thing Xaedan’s cooked up. Gingerly, I replace Winston on my bedside table, where he sits proudly, flanked by Hewkii and Macku. Mmmm. They’re just so adorable. ---- Tsukumi kicks the door close with the heel of her foot, only to immediately dive back inside her house. I peer inside to find her leaving out a day’s worth of food for Margaret, who magically reappeared back in Haven. The Swamp Stalker’s combined lunch and dinner consisted of several two-by-four planks of lumber, a dead Husi, and what appeared to be rocks. Yes, rocks. You’ve got to give credit where it’s due; that Rahi’s stomach could handle anything. The real question is, would all that last long enough? Margaret's already inhaling her… ah… food, if that stuff really could be called edible. “Ready! Let’s go. Xaedan, pull that on me again and you’ll fall not onto the ground, but into the underworld.” Tsukumi finally steps out of her home while securely tying the strikingly blue sash around her waist. “Yes, yes, I’ve learned my lesson.” I throw a wink at “Mary" who grins widely back at me. Since she’s the tallest of us, I simply stood on her shoulders to I could peek in Tsukumi’s second story. Also with me is Kaixin and Anzix. Kaixin, surprisingly, was still awake and answered my knocks on her door without too much of a fuss. Apparently, she’s hyperactive enough to not need sleep. Anzix was found passed out on the floor of his bedroom and no amount of shaking or punching could wake him up. In the end, Kaixin froze his head in a block of ice. And “Mary”, of course, is always with me. I had no need to find her. “And I assume this is Tsukumi?” Seras pokes her head from behind me. “Nice to meet you, Toa of Water.” “Likewise, uh…” “Seras.” “And who’s that behind you?” “Oh, this fellow? He’s a friend of mine.” Jata sidles out and waves a hand. “Happy-glad to see you all again.” Seras raises an eyebrow. “You know them?” “Yeah, sure. Had a happy-cheer time with the Toa-heroes recently. Lost of crash-bangs. Very fun.” Before Tsukumi even can open her mouth, Kaixin interjects. “Don’t worry, I’ve told Jata to keep his shenanigans to himself for today. He knows the southern hills better than any of us, we need his experience on this one. Plus, he was with Seras during her camping trip, he can help us on our search.” Anzix nods agreement. “Yeah. Jata’s not with any of the mercenaries this time. He’ll be a good boy.” “Then it’s settled.” I motion for everyone to follow. “Let’s go fetch Amea now.” ---- “The library?” “Yeah, “Mary”. Anzix said that Amea already slept some on the train ride home so she decided to read for a bit.” The library. I seemed like it was only two days ago when Tsukumi and I put out the fire that ravaged the building. Oh, wait. It was. The townspeople worked fast. True, damage was minimal, but it was like the library had never been burnt at all. If anything, it looks newer and sturdier than ever. No trace of smoke lingered, only the musty smell of paper. The destroyed bookcases had been replaced by identical ones, but the books, or rather, lack thereof, themselves left a gaping cavity on the shelves. Knowledge was the only thing that the builders couldn’t replicate. “Jata, let go of my leg.” “B-but… that Toa-villain scares me!” “I assure you, she’s just as scary to me,” Anzix replies. “But we must be brave. We can’t let ourselves be defeated by the likes of her!” “By who, now?” The two stooges froze, already knowing full well whose voice that was. “Hey, Amea. Whatcha doin’?” Kaixin greets Amea with a fist clank. “Reading.” “Well… that was informative. What were you reading, then?” Atop the table Amea was at not a minute ago sat a thin, pelt-bound book with gold-trimmed pages, an antique, intricately carved lightstone stand, and a whole lot of dust. Amea simply shrugs. “Stuff. I just like reading.” “Uh, hi.” The Sonics Toa looks down to see a Ga-Matoran waving. Amea tentatively raises her arm in response. “Who’s this? Is she working for Anzix?” “Oh, heavens, no. Jata here has been telling me all about his wild journeys with Anzix, I’m really not cut out for that kind of work. I’m a biologist, not an adventurer. The name’s Seras.” “That’s a nice name. I’m Amea, Anzix’s wife. A pleasure meeting you, Seras.” Oh? Anzix and Amea have reached that level already? That was fast. “No she isn’t!” Anzix hollers back. “Trust nothing she says! She’s a witch, I tell you! A witch!” Jata chimes in. “It’s true, I can fact-prove it. One time, when the Boss was ever-quick stealth-sneaking into Kaixin’s house-” “Wooooahhh there, son. Let’s stop this before you or Anzix gets maimed by Amea,” I cut the Le-Matoran off, nipping off this awkward discussion’s bud before it could grow any further. Seras coughs nervously. “So, uh, Amea, ma’am. I was wondering if you could join along in the search for my walking stick. I know it sounds stupid, but, uh, it’s important to me. Xaedan and the rest of the your team have decided to go, too.” Seras seems just as scared as Anzix and Jata are of the Sonics Toa now. “But, I mean,” the Ga-Matoran hastily blurts, “If you don’t want to… that’s fine…” “Of course I’m going with you, I need to keep an eye… a close eye on Anzix.” Tsukumi claps her hands, bringing everyone’s gazes to settle on her. “Then it’s settled. We all go, with Seras and Jata leading the way.” “Mary” nods happily. “Never been. Should be a pleasant experience.” She grabs my hand and marches forward, falling into step behind the two Matoran. And the lot of us plod on, the hot, afternoon sun in our face, glaringly bright, the strong, summer heat wearing us down, and lack of sleep threatening to make a few of us throw up at any minute. Mata Nui help any old Po-Matoran that dares bar our way. Part II Roasting marshmallows over a fire. An obligatory duty that must be fulfilled while camping. I thought Jata was going to just be a nuisance, but, hey, the lil’ guy really knows what he’s doing. The Le-Matoran brought a whole duffel bag full of those white, sugary delights. The Poplar Forest is actually a misnomer. Barely a tenth of it is comprised of poplar trees. In fact, the only poplar trees that you can find are on the north side of the forest. We Toa are munching on marshmallows underneath a brilliantly star-studded sky, surrounded by nature and clouds of mosquitoes. Life doesn’t get much better. “Mary”’s the only one out of us who’s immune to those miniature vampires; Her armor has no gaps. Lucky her. The rest of us have to slap ourselves every few minutes. I’m considering setting myself on fire to drive them off. “Jata and I would have brought graham crackers, too, but seeing as this is a really short trip, you’ll have to make do with these only. Sorry, guys,” Seras announces to us all with a small sigh. “Hope you guys don’t mind.” “No’ a phlboblem, Serath,” Anzix spits out. And he spits a bit more than just words, let me tell you that. Jata, sitting next to the Plasma Toa, neatly dodges the barrage of spittle. “Oh, the light-fire’s dying out. Xaedan?” With a snap of my fingers, I swell the spluttering embers and we soon have a merry campfire once again. A few minutes pass, where the only sounds were the crackling of fire, chewing or the ‘mallows, and the rhythmic slaps of mosquitoes. “Let’s sing a song!” Seras says. “I’ve had it with all this quiet.” Before she’s even finished closing her mouth, she’s met with a flurry of refusals. Anzix was the first. “My voice sounds like a Blade Burrower’s mating call.” That brought a couple of laughs. “That’s actually a talent, Anzix,” I chuckle. “I’m no better off. Tsukumi?” “Me? Uh… I’ve never tried to sing. Guess that means I’m pretty bad.” She glances over at Amea. “I know for sure Amea can sing, and pretty darn well, too… but…” Seras frowns quizzically. “But…?’ “My voice kills people,” Amea responds coolly. “So let’s not have it come to that.” “Mhhm. That’d prove to be a bit of a problem, Amea,” Kaixin admits. “I have a passable voice, let’s put it that way. “Mary”?” “Nope. In all my years, I’ve never sung, not once.” Seras purses her lips. “Ah, that’s a pity, then. What to do? The night’s young.” “This.” Amea pulls out the thing volume I saw earlier from the library. “Oh! Ghost stories!” Kaixin got it in one. “I love those. If you can scare me, Amea, I’ll give you ten widgets.” The whole group closes in on the campfire as Amea slowly cracks the slim book open, the rustling of the aged pages mingling with the fire’s popping. With bated breath, we hang on to each of Amea’s words, her gentle voice drawing us in. The Toa of Sonics fingers lightly run over the page, clearly feeling for a series of dots that could only be the Brale system. “According to this one fellow, there is a certain spirit that haunts a victim, day in, day out. Relentlessly. Unwaveringly. For eternity. And only one unfortunate victim is ever haunted. No one knows why, but they are glad not to be that poor, wretched soul. But, there’s more. This is a powerful ghost, capable of delivering electrical attacks to its-” “Get out of town, Amea, that’s just you!” Anzix calls out amid peals of laughter from “Mary”, Seras, and Kaixin. “Give us a real story!” Amea wears one of her rare smiles as she flips a page. “Fine, here’s one. It’s really short. Alright, you guys all know that the Vo-Matoran have invented those baby monitors, right? That’s so the parents can hear if their child is crying in the night. Well. There was one Agori who was reading a book, just about to turn in for the night. He could hear his partner’s voice softly cooing their baby to sleep. ‘Go to sleep.... go to sleep...’ The father smiled and turned off the bedside light. All was well.” The Toa of Sonics grins. “No sooner than he had flicked the switch off, he could hear his wife slam the front door open, back from grocery shopping.” “Huh. That was a weird one,” Kaixin finally breathes out, while the rest of us tried to wrap our heads around the short tale. “I guess I was wrong, you’re not going to tell just plain ol’ ghost stories.” In response, Amea holds up the book. Tsukumi leans in to read, her sash dangerously close to brushing up against the campfire. “Creepy Stories For Weirding Out Your Friends. Really, Amea?” “Hush. Here’s another good one, and it’s a poem.” The Toa of Sonics clears her throat and begins anew. “Ahkmou watched too much TV, or you could say it watched him. The jumbo screen, the extra big size, greatly resembled a large glass eye. Yes, it appeared to be watching him.” “Ahkmou would wake before the stir of dawn, instead of work he’d turn it on. The TV sat in the corner like a hungry toad, luring Ahkmou with its mindless load. Foolish Akhmou would turn it on.” “He’d sit and stare, and that was fine, but that TV would clog his mind. He’d watch and watch, both eyes round, mouth gaping and brain rotting. Yes, that TV was clogging his mind.” “His few friends would say ‘Turn it off!’ But Ahkmou didn’t listen. His friends stopped caring as they were busy at work. Ahkmou would no longer listen.” “At last, it was time for him to be taken, when the TV was sure Ahkmou was forsaken. It pounced, grabbed him, and have not a doubt, Ahkmou’s inside it now, looking out. Inside it, alone, forsaken.” “A friend of his walks by later that day, and hears poor, wretched Ahkmou sobbing away. ‘That TV is too loud,’ he angrily scoffs, so he pushes a button, turning it off. And Ahkmou is gone away, forever gone away.” I nod along with Kaixin. Both of us hailed from Metru Nui and we had our fair share of moments with that wayward Po-Matoran, so this story was rather enjoyable. “Interesting poem, Amea,” “Mary” comments. “Odd that it would use a TV, of all things, to get the point across. After, those are still a fairly rare commodity around these parts.” “Whenever I read this, I always think the author is trying to warn us how the television can be a bad thing if we watch it for too long. Maybe he’s right. Most Matoran don’t sit in front of a screen all day, so who knows how they’ll be affected?” Amea shrugs and turns a few more pages. “My third story was written by a Onu-Matoran researcher who deals in the paranormal. His report is as follows. “The shade is a curious creature. It could be you. It could be me! The shade takes the form of a Matoran or another sentient being in order to exist. Their evil, burning eye drive straight through you to the core. I’ve worked long and hard to gather my sources and present to you this well of information. Beware the shade, for it leaves no mark upon this existence. Where it treads, there are no footprints. When it crosses the verdant field, the grass shall not part. “But you must be asking yourself, why do we have these deplorable entities? They are the spirits of a forgotten age, lost, forever bound to this earth. They cannot survive long, however. With each passing second, they grow closer and closer to eternal damnation. The shade will move from one body to another, drawing upon the life of each victim to live another day. When they are done with one vessel, it is discarded and the shade moves on, always hungry for life. With each victim slain, their eye glow ever brighter. “Yet, no one remembers these vile spirits. There are no traces of it, no skeletons, no records. it kills indiscriminately, without fear of ever being caught. No records, I tell you, none at all. “My final piece of advice. Never run from a shade. The chase was over from the very start. You cannot escape their evil eye.” I raise an eyebrow. “These tales keep getting stranger and stranger, huh?” “Hah!” Tsukumi exclaims. “This one can’t be real. If these shade thingies leave no trace, how was he able to get all this information, hm? What a load of Kane-Ra crap.” Anzix tentatively raises a hand. “What, meatwad?” “What if he was the shade? If you listened carefully, it was always ‘eye’, not ‘eyes’. And ‘eye’ sounds like ‘I’.” The Toa of Water falls silent at that. Seras shivers, and she wasn’t the only one. “Whew, that explanation gives me the chills!” “Everyone!” Amea’s slightly raised voice snaps us all out of our speculating. “Last story. And it’ll be the best of them all, I promise.” “Finally,” Jata piped up. “Was about to- At a wave from Amea’s slender hand, words ceased to come out of Jata’s mouth. “Oh, shush. Anyways. Once there was a Matoran in… Ah, it doesn’t matter where. He was born with a rare deformity… A large hand on his right side. Yes, that was it.” “Ooooh. Cold-chilling. So scary.” Jata’s voice had returned. “This Matoran was known to Karzahni, due to his, ah, imperfection. So, the insane ruler sought to ‘fix’ him. Let’s call our Matoran… Korrles. “Now, Korrles was a hard worker and took pride in his work. But one day, as he went to his building site, he found the other workers looking at him… funny. He continued crafting, but looked up from his work every few minutes. The other Matoran weren’t working… just staring. “They started walking towards him, step by step. Korrles asked ‘G-guys… What’s wrong?’. There were no responses. The faces of all the Matoran were contorted with something approaching rage.” Amea’s voice had an odd, haunting effect. I bet she was using her Sonics power, but the pair of Matoran were hooked. Seras was wide-eyed, latching on to Amea’s words. Jata, the same. “A Su-Matoran laid his hands on Korrles’ shoulder, a smile? No. A look of madness, on his face. He looked directly into Korrles’ eyes and he intoned:” Amea’s voice again changed. A quick jab at Anzix’s ribs, and the Toa of Plasma began to light up the area behind her. Anzix the pyrotechnician. Who would have thunk? “‘Do you know, dear Korrles, what imperfection means to this world? Do you know, how this little deviation of yours affects this world? You fail to work as quickly, as efficiently.’ The Su-Matoran leaned in close. ‘You have failed Mata Nui.’ “Korrles pushed the Su-Matoran off and fled. He ran, looking for some rock in a troubled sea of crazed Matoran. He saw the village's Turaga on a cliff, and ran to him. ‘They’re all mental, sir!’ The Turaga turned, a kindly look on his face. ‘Well, then my good man, what shall we do of it? Perhaps we should calm them down?’ “Korrles nodded furiously. ‘That’d be mighty good. You have suggestions? Sans throwing me to the muakas?’ The Turaga smiled kindly. ‘Do not worry, child. There will be no sacrifice.’ She placed a hand on his shoulder.” The lighting dimmed, and Jata’s eyes were wide. “‘Only… Repair.’ Chains lashed around Korrles’ arm, and with a scream, the community never heard from him again.” Under the cover of the darkness, Anzix swiftly lashes a length of chain around Seras and Jata, prompting wails and shrieks. The Plasma Toa winks at “Mary”. Ah, so she was the one who lent him that length of chain. I guess having those dangling from your armor can prove to be useful after all. “Mata Nui! I think my heartlight dimmed there for a second! I was about to die of fright!” Seras clutches her chest while taking deep breaths. “Ahhh, Amea,” Kaixin smirks. “That’s a low blow, aiming for the little people. Seras, you seem ok. How’s Jata doing?” “Curled up in the fetal position and muttering to himself. He’ll be right as rain in a moment,” Anzix reports. “Well, we got those stories out of the way. You make a surprisingly good storyteller, Amea,” I say. “Anyway, how far to go, Seras? I know it’s been only a day, but, surely, we’ve made progress, right?” The Ga-Matoran gulps loudly and tosses her marshmallow twig into the fire. I haven’t eaten too many of the fluffballs, myself. “Mary” or Kaixin keep stealing them when I’m not paying attention. “Whew! I’m so done for today. Uh, well, Xaedan. I think we’re a fair way past the halfway mark.” Jata nods in agreement, unable to speak. Ever seen a squirrel store nuts in its mouth? Well, that’s not the case with Jata. The Matoran of Air’s lower mask is smeared with the sticky marshmallows, preventing him from talking. “Yeah,” The Ga-Matoran went on. “We made the trip in three days last time, but we didn’t have a Toa taxi service back then. I’d say tomorrow, we’ll be there.” “Mmm. Good to know,” Tsukumi murmurs. She yawns widely. “I’m beat. If I have any nightmares, I’m going to hit you tomorrow, Amea. G’night.” The Toa of Water collapses to the forest floor, the noise muffled by the thick layer of dead leaves and soil. Just like that, she was snoring gently. The yawn was infectious and Anzix cracks a big one of his own. “Just looking at her makes me sleepy. Amea, don’t get too close to me when I hit the sack.” Amea gives the Toa of Plasma a quick zap and he falls unconscious with a faint look of surprise still lingering on his mask. The two fall asleep holding hands. I turn, thoroughly bewildered by Anzix and Amea’s ridiculous antics.. “How about you, Kai...xin…?” The Toa of Ice is already murmuring in her sleep about ice cream. She’s out cold, her head on the same log I’m sitting on. “Mary”’s not better off. She’s curled up near me, tail limp and wings droopy. But you know what? Try as hard I might, I can’t catch any of those elusive, much-needed z’s. It’s… too quiet. I’ve gotten used to Haven. There will always be the light drone of night life subtly caressing me to dreamland. Here, the silence is deafening. It really, really is. I counted Mukaus jumping over an Onu-Matoran. I’m even clutching the bag of remaining marshmallows just like Tsukumi would with her stuffed toys. I feel a bit silly doing so, but, hey, it works for her. But it’s all futile. “You still awake, Xaedan?” “Seras?” “Yeah. Shhh, let’s move away a bit. Wouldn’t want to wake the others.” The two of us duck behind a bush around twenty feet away which adds the benefit of a partial defence against those bloodsucking monstrosities. “Yeah, I just can’t sleep, Seras. Help me out here,” I grumble. “I study plants, not sleep. Can’t help you, sorry. I’m just awake to collect some plant samples.” “What?” “I didn’t just go on that camping trip for fun. I was taking some live specimens back with me to show my students. I teach plant biology in the Haven labs, see.” “Hm. That’s new for me. Right, then, what’s this?” I feed a trickle of power to my mask to shed some light on some random plant I just uprooted. “Ah, that. You tore it from where?” I shuffle around a bit to give Seras a better look at the plant’s original location. “Right by that tree there.” “Mmm. That’s Athyrium filix-femina. See how its reproductive structures are hidden pretty well under its leaves? That’s the giveaway.” She knows her stuff. “Oh, then what about this one?” “That’s not a plant.” I look down to see myself grasping a mushroom. “It’s huge!” “That’s actually Agaricus campestris, the common white mushroom you’d normally eat,” the biologist laughs. “A colleague of mine specializes in fungi. She told me that farmers specially cultivate mushrooms so they’re that small instead of letting them grow to something big like you see here. You know those enoki mushrooms shipped in from the east?” “Those tiny ones? Sure, Tsukumi once cooked those for me. Pretty tasty.” Seras smirks and raises an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s this about Tsukumi, now? Anyways, growers keep the enoki mushrooms in the dark so their caps stay tiny. If you were to find them in the wild, they’d look like that, more or less.” The Matoran of Water points at the ginormous fungus I hold. Fascinating. I toss the mushroom aside to look around for another sample that would catch my eye. “You’re not feeling sleepy, Xaedan? I thought my lecture on plant material might have done the trick!” Seras says with a smile on her face. “Hah, if anything, I’m even more interested. I have an idea. Why don’t you find something to show me?” Seras’ eyes light up in the dark gloom of the night. “I’ll take you up on that. Wait right here.” With noisy rustlings and slight grunts, Seras makes her way deeper into the forest. From the light of my mask, I can see her part away the branches of low-lying shrubs. Within seconds, she is swallowed up by the woodland. And, quite suddenly, I’m alone. I should really stay awake until Seras returns. But… without her… presence… now… With a yawn, I draw the half-empty duffel bag close, tiredness washing over me. At long, long last… the… Part III ...the warm rays of the daylight beat down upon my mask. Mmm? How long was I out? I spit out a couple of leaves. That’s what I get for falling asleep in a bush. Leaves. That’s right. “Seras? Hello?” “Mmmmph. Shut up, mag… mmm…” “Tsukumi? You- Mata Nui!” From out of nowhere, “Mary” pokes her head into the shrub and ends up being mere inches away from mine. “What’s up, Xae? Heard you calling out.” “Seras! I can’t find her anywhere!” Immediately, “Mary” straightens. “Everybody! Seras is missing! Search for her, now!” She fires off a burst of dark flame from her finger, the loud crackling rousing up the group. “What’s going on? Is there a forest fire?” “No, Kaixin, that was me waking you up. Listen up, I’ll say it again. Seras is gone. Look for her. We go in pairs. Amea and Anzix, head north. Oh, you may as well take Jata. Tsukumi, Kaixin, look towards the west. Xaedan and I cover the south. Hop to it! Signal if you find anything, anything at all.” I jog off with “Mary”, her longer legs forcing me to almost run just to keep up. “When was the last time you saw her, Xaedan?” “Last night. We were the only two awake at the time. She wandered into the forest after a bit, but then I fell asleep.” The cool forest air rushes by the two of us as we sprint through the undergrowth. Tree branches whip back at us in our faces, but we pay no heed. The path is treacherous here, thorns growing out from low-lying plants, leaves hiding small potholes, the glowing red eyes of predators lurking behind the layers plants. “Um, “Mary”. There’s something here. Could be a big Rahi.” “Then let’s quickly take care of it, we have no time to lose.” With a flick of her wrist, she burns away the leaves to where I point, in an effort to reveal the creature. The flames stop dead in their tracks. I mean, they’re just literally hovering in midair, not moving at all. It’s…it’s almost as if they were frozen in time… “Mary” swore, a rather uncharacteristic thing for her to do. “That can’t be the work of a Rahi, we’ve got something much, much bigger on our hands.” She raises a clawed hand and sends a barrage of flares streaking into the air. Hopefully, it would have been noticed by the others. The glowing red eyes turned out to be a deep orange pair belonging to a Toa who steps out from the leafy shadows. A Toa? Out here? “We mean you no harm, Toa. What is your business with us?” I desperately hoped that this stranger would be willing to talk things out. I get no response. I call this Toa a stranger in every sense of the word. Dull bronze and black armor, colours I’ve never seen before on a Matoran or Toa, with glowing orange accents. And a Vahi? A Vahi! Even that wasn’t what shocked me the most. She, this newcomer, held a small stone tablet in her gauntleted hand. “State your business,” I repeat, though my voice is now threatening to break from shock and the prospect of having to fight a fellow Toa. At last, she speaks, in a voice so quiet, so delicate. “Kill.” ---- “I can’t believe I’m saying this… but I actually wish I had a Kanohi Kadin right about now, Kaixin.” “Nonsense. You’d barely be half the Toa you are now without your current mask,” she jokes. I wear the Kanohi Maion, the Mask of Elemental Embodiment. It is a powerful mask, so, despite them being a joke, there may be some truth in Kaixin’s words. “No matter. We will run, then. Let’s go, Kaixin.” The Ice Toa nods in agreement, now serious, her usual lopsided grin absent from her face. We hadn’t wandered too far from the campsite, I don’t think. It had barely been, by my estimation, twenty minutes when we saw the streaks of black fire painted across the sky. “Mary” sure caught our attentions with that. “Look! There they are!” Kaixin points and rushes forward, soon vanishing . That was fast. Had Seras already been found? I hope with all my might that she’s unharmed. She was the one who wanted to go on this trip, after all, it would be terrible if she was hurt. Plus, we Toa were supposed to escort her. If we couldn’t even protect one Matoran, then we’re not worthy to be Toa. “Wait up, Kaixin!” The Toa of Ice and the maggot are standing side-by-side, arms raised, weapons out. Were they preparing for a fight? Who was there to fight in a forest? “Hey! Maggot! Kaixin! What’s going on here?” They’re ignoring me. What nerve! They won’t even turn around to face me. But… they seem oddly stiff. Paralyzed? I reach over to give a rough shake to the mag- What? It’s like I’m grabbing hold of a statue! He won’t budge in the slightest. “Tsukumi, stay back! She has time-based abilities! Xaedan and Kaixin are trapped in time!” “Mary” yells over her shoulder as she frantically hurls spark after spark of shadowflame at the enemy. I notice our foe’s mask. The Vahi? Impossible. It should be in that Dark Hunter’s hands. His name escapes me. I wasn’t the first to the scene. Anzix and Amea had charged ahead, Jata instinctively running for cover in the bushes. Mary held back, peppering the assailant with bolts of red-black fire. The Toa of Time did not break stride. One step, two steps. Maddeningly, she seemed to move faster than her legs actually moved on the ground. Anzix lowers his shield and takes a defensive stance, his sword ready to parry. Amea stands almost pressed to his back, katanas out, crossed in front of her. The bronze armored Toa stops maybe ten feet away from the pair. Slowly, almost too slowly, the mysterious Toa brings up a gun, old and withered from age. The moment her trigger finger tightens, all Karzahni breaks loose. Anzix furiously moves sword and shield, his sweeping motions not letting his opponent get a shot off. Amea, too slashes her blades, jabbing away without needing to register sight. I suppose blindness has advantages. Through it all, the Toa of Time dodges and weaves effortlessly. Their usual idiotic shenanigans mask a hidden affinity for each other in battle; They complement each other perfectly. Anzix would be at the forefront, buckler up, slashing heavily in order to beat the opponent down. Amea covers his openings with quick, fluid jabs and precise flicks of her own. If anything, watching them fight is more like watching a pair of dancers. Blades flash, catching the rays of the sun, reflecting them into short-lived rainbows. The pair have turned a heated battle into a fine arts performance. But Anzix was slowing down, and Amea had to start maneuvering to cover him. Oddly enough, the Time Toa didn’t seem to be doing anything, yet, the two swordsmen were now on the defensive. I took a hint, began running. Pulling into a forward somersault, I fling myself over my teammates, mask glowing and ready. Any move I use now gets converted into a semi-sentient attack. I call on the water in my condensers and it coalesces into a dragon’s head. It roars towards my target. Anzix manages to grab Amea and the pair pull out, diving into relative safety behind a tree as the water crashes to the ground. For the first time, I see my foe clearly. She’s clad in heavy bronze armor, pockmarked and scratched, but none of the damage was from this century, never mind from this fight. Incredible. She went unscathed through Anzix’s and Amea’s onslaught? What’s even more disconcerting is the Vahi. It’s not glowing. So… if the mask wasn’t powering her attacks… what is? I land on the balls of my feet, ready for anything. Anything except this… aura of slowness? I pay no heed to it. Dashing forwards, the power of pure water coursing through my punches, I throw a left, right, a sneaky jab down low. Nothing’s connecting! Not one of my blows manage to land! Could the sluggish feeling be the result of a Time-based power? As though she is bored of all this nonsense, the Toa of Time raises her pistol. The Ussal turds have just hit the fan. Squeezing my eyes shut and hoping for the best, I send a flurry of watery arrows ahead, hoping at least one would hit the inevitable bullet. Bang. Noting my body still in one place, I crack an eye open. Nothing’s wrong. Not missing anything vital. My face is still beautiful. We’re all good here. I rush in with a roundhouse punch but too slowly, it seems. A hand grabbed mine so I went for a mid-air scissor kick. Then two more hands grabbed me. Two more? The world went in circles as I was thrown, head over heels. I landed on my side with none of my customary grace, and I stagger to my feet. My momentum was gone, and my opponents were stand- Opponents. There are two of them. And they are exactly the same. What. The. Karzahni. She’s not shooting me, she’s shooting herself! Right in the head! With each bullet fired, another copy of herself shimmers into existence. But, really, doesn’t shooting yourself hurt? Even a little bit? The Toa of Time seems unfazed. As one, the copies rush at us, seeking to overwhelm us with sheer numbers. I trust that my teammates will be able to fend for themselves and concentrate on the, oh, I don’t know, fifty or sixty I have for myself. Shouldn’t be a problem. Right hook! And a quick strike to the ribs. That’s eight down. Each of my attacks are fuelled by water and a punch may as well be a tidal wave. Too easy. With a simple side kick, I’ve already imploded the ribcages of a few more of these empty fakes. “Keep going, everyone! I’ll try to get Xaedan and Kaixin!” I turn. “Anzix?” I shout. “What are you doing? You can’t go up against that Toa of Time alone!” “Not gonna! Careful, team, I’m overloading her!” I see. A gamble. Anzix would convert his plasma to energy and feed it to our adversary in the hopes of overloading her power, hopefully breaking Xaedan and Kaixin free from their bonds. However, while he’s doing so, these duplicates would get a whole lot stronger. With a savage cry, Anzix envelops himself in pure energy, his entire body turning white and hazy. Slowly but surely, with great effort, he begins to slowly siphon it off to the Toa of Time. I take a deep breath. Here we go. ---- “‘Scuse me, didn’t quite catch that.” I blink. I’m talking to thin air. Huh. I could have sworn the strange Toa said ‘kill’, or was I mistaken? “Eh? Kaixin? When did you get here?” The Toa of Ice is stumbling around, disoriented. She turns to me. “I was always here, Xaedan. You were the one who stood around doing nothing like an idiot.” A familiar hand rests on my shoulder. “Mary”. “You two were trapped in time. Don’t talk about it now, explanations can wait. Just accept that fact as it is for now. Now, go fight.” Trapped in time. How… odd. When you stop and think about it, how can something like that even be possible? It does prove my earlier guess about “Mary”’s fire being frozen. This stranger indeed was a Toa of Time. But I’m very interested in that stone tablet and I won’t rest until I have a look at it. “Kaixin, cover me!” The Toa of Ice pauses in her shooting. “Get back here, Xaedan!” “I’m leaving it to you!” I dash ahead. That chronicle. It can’t be a coincidence. The only way to beat a Chronicle is with one of your own, so I waste no time in whipping my own out. It’s blitzed with entries! The Introvert Chronicle Number Eight 8:33 - Anzix tries to throw his shield. 8:02 - I wake to find Seras missing. 8:26 - "Mary" and I find a large Rahi in the undergrowth. 7:12 - Tsukumi appears. 12:41 - Anzix is tasered by Amea. 9:00 - I step on a rock. 8:39 - My Time is running out. 7:14 - Tsukumi is frozen in time. Frozen? Tsukumi gets frozen? But half of these entries aren’t even in their right place so what’s real and what’s not? This hunk of rock can’t be trusted. A flurry of icicles fly overhead. Ah, good, looks like Kaixin’s finally decided to help me out. I make the most of the diversion by diving forwards under the cover of the razor sharp ice. This sort of acrobatic stuff has never been my strong point, I’ll be honest. In fact, any sort of gracile movement is more often than not beyond me. So, of course I’d end up flat on my face. No big surprise, it’s to be expected. Yeah, yeah, this big Toa of Fire does a faceplant in the middle of an intense firefight. That’s prime Toa material. Grunting, I push myself up, hoping no one saw that. With this messy fugue of a battle going on, I may actually have gotten away… with… Aw jeez. I ended up right in front of the Toa of Time. “Guys? Help me out here!” Silence was my only response. I turn my head and am met with a ghastly scene. Entire chunks of land are gone, leaving clean, perfectly smooth craters. Ten minutes ago, this forest was as dense as a carpet you spilled glue on. Now, huge swathes of the trees have either ended up as saplings or twisted, withered husks. Oh, but that’s not all. Anzix’s shield is frozen in mid-air, with its thrower perfectly still. Amea, too, has been defeated. She is flickering in and out, like a hologram. Kaixin’s form shimmers mid-air, as blurry as a badly taken photo. And Tsukumi is just gone. Nowhere to be found. There’s no telling what happened to her. Even Jata, little Jata, hasn’t been spared. Hey. Why am I being launched backwards into the air? And why on earth is my chin stinging like Karzahni? Maybe it’s to do with the fact that the Toa of Time just caved my head in with a kick to the face while I was still down. I’ve tried reasoning with her. I’ve tried talking things out. Now it’s time for a more persuasive method. My dragon gauntlet materializes in a fiery blaze on my raised right arm. I don’t care if she’s Father, well, Mother Time herself, I am going to beat her. “Boost!” The familiar aching strikes me as I double my elemental powers. With greater power comes greater responsibility. And a headache, said no one ever. Oh, boy. She’s firing round after round, muttering all sorts of unintelligible words. Amidst the repeated, thunderous cracks of her aged pistol, I hear “Epta… Dio… Exi…” Her strange language means nothing to me. I don’t bother dodging; I just melt the bullets mid-air by surrounding myself in a cocoon of flame. The Time Toa’s powers are useless if she can’t hit me. But that’s not to say they aren’t powerful. One of the projectiles got through my spurts of fire and embedded itself into a nearby tree. Before my eyes, the tree shudders and its branches flap all about as if it were in a tornado. And, finally, with a loud pop, it turns into an acorn. Well, that explains why the forest around me is so badly warped. “Boost!” My dragon gauntlet glimmers in response and just like that, my powers are redoubled. The discomfort is now compounded by my legs turning to jelly. A small price to pay. With this much elemental energy, let’s shake things up a bit. Why don’t I turn myself into heat particles? I can flamewalk, that is, teleport using heat, and surprise her. Should I reappear on top of her? Or maybe just behind her… Uh. The Time Toa’s shooting herself. Suicide? No… nothing happening to her… I think she said “Deka”. Well, like that tells me anything. Behind her it is, then. I’ll take that monster of a Toa out with a single blow. She won’t know what hit her. I shimmer back into existence and I end up staring at the dangerous end of a gun, pressed to my forehead, the steel muzzle cold and unforgiving. I bet that shot to her head helped her predict the flamewalk. “Dodeka.” It’s that same, gentle voice from before. The voice that uttered the word that started all of this nonsense. With this word, it’ll end it. Inch by inch, the trigger is pulled. The world slows, and that’s not an exaggeration. It really has become slower, everything’s at a Dermis Turtle’s pace. The flintlock’s hammer drops. Sparks fly, igniting the gunpowder, and the bullet within springs forward, summoned to kill. The Toa of Time lowers the gun, it’s muzzle smoking slightly. Time resumes its original speed. Am… am I not dead? How? I didn’t feel any pain… not that I would. I’d be dead if that really had happened. Frantically, I paw at my forehead with my free hand. There’s no bullet hole. Nothing. Not even a scratch. Clearly, something’s not right. I stand, yet the Toa of Time makes no move to stop me. She just stares at me, those hellish orange orbs in her skull watching. I take a hesitant step for- “Gahhh!” Back pain! Don’t old people usually have that? I guess I’ll treat my elders with more respect from now on... I shuffle clumsily forward. I can still fight! “This isn’t over yet!” I yell, my voice scratchy and weak. “It is over.” “Eh? Speak up!” “Over. It’s over. You’re all as good as dead. So stop this.” I cough, a dry, rasping, hack. “No! We haven’t finished! ” Easier said than done, my gauntlet’s now as heavy as Ta-Matoran’s anvil. I can’t even lift it above waist-height. The Toa of Time fires a shot without uttering one of her strange words, harmlessly blasting apart my rusted gauntlet. Rusted? “I’m stealing your time, Xaedan. That’s why you’re getting older.” “Hey, hold it. How do you know my name? I must’ve told you and forget. My mind’s going. Curse this Alzheimer's disease! And… stealing what now?” The Kanohi Vahi masks her face, but I thought I could see a hint of a sad frown. “The plant next to your right foot is Centaurea maculosa, or spotted knapweed. An invasive species, with a thin, hairy stem reaching up to three feet tall.” I suck in a quick gasp. “Seras?” The former Ga-Matoran nods, eyes downward in shame. “I’m stealing your time. The others’, too.” “The rest of them? What have you done?” There was no more Anzix, no more Amea, no more Kaixin. What were once fellow Toa, teammates, and above all, friends, had been reduced to gray husks, cracked, battered and badly rusted from age. The three Toa had just spent their entire lifetime in a matter of minutes. Tsukumi was not present but I can only assume she had met a similar fate. “I told you! I stole their time!” Seras, as a Toa, was truly frightening with her voice raised. “Listen up! That legend about the shade is true, though not fully accurate. The shade is actually a Re-Matoran. Re-Matoran, Matoran of Time, harmlessly walk among you as normal villagers. Naturally, we are bronze and black but when we join the timestream, we change our colours. That matches how a shade can take the form of any Matoran, though the legend is partially off.” Scared as I was, I managed to stutter a question. Hey, if you had an all-powerful Toa who just murdered four of your teammates bearing down on you, you’d be just as freaked out. “T-timestream?” This time, Seras’ frown was one of frustration. “Yes, yes, the timestream.” She spoke as if she were berating a delinquent student. “A Re-Matoran is a force of nature rather than a Matoran. We don’t exist the same was as you do. We transcend the timestream. When we join a community of Matoran, that as close as we can co-exist with the everyone else as possible, we automatically camouflage ourselves, permanently. One colour switch only, there’s no going back.” I can only stand there and nod dumbly. Seras’ wild explanation was both fantastical and fascinating. “So, then the legend says we suck your life out, yeah? Well, you just saw what I did. Only Toa of Time can do this, not Matoran of Time. All my attacks use up my own time, or life force, so I replenish it by killing you lot. Easy.” Gathering my courage, I stand up a bit straighter, as far as my throbbing back would allow. “I know who’s behind this.” I present my Chronicle. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you clutching that tablet the whole while when you fought. My eyesight may be failing now, but I can still see it. Infernum’s behind all of this, isn’t he?” “Funny you should mention that. He’s the one who told me to kill you all and win this Deathmatch.” I narrow my eyes. “I knew that damned Great Being would mess around with us. He’s just using you, Seras! You don’t have to do this.” “Too late. You’re going to die, just like your friends,” she chuckles mockingly, but even in this aged, weakened, half-deaf state I can tell her laughter rings hollow. “Tell me why you’re doing this.” “Because I want to.” I look Seras square in her eyes, those fearsome, orange eyes. “Tell me why you’re doing this,” I repeat. She crumbles almost immediately under my gaze. Despite her new form, she’s still Seras, the Ga-Matoran who researches plants and teaches at the haven schools, not a killer. “If I win… I can reverse all of this with my power, can’t I?” With a strained grunt, I close the distance between us and clap my withered, weather-beaten hand on Seras’ shoulder. “I don’t know, Seras. I’m not so sure I can trust you.” “What?” Seras looks at me, disbelief and shock written all over her face. I snatch the Chronicle from her while she was distracted. The Temporal Chronicle Number Eighteen “This Chronicle! There’s nothing on it!” I whirl around to see Seras on all-fours, gasping for air and clearly in pain. Orange lightning crackles along her frame and sparks fly, warping the air around them. This is pure Time energy. Dangerous stuff. “Give… back…” “No. If I give this back, your powers come rushing forth and who knows what you’d do. This isn’t right, Seras.” “Omelettes and… eggs… Xaedan.” I narrow my eyes. “If you’re not going to change your ways… I’ll change them for you. Saving us by killing others isn’t worth it. Sorry, Seras.” I throw the Temporal Chronicle to the ground, cracking it into two. With an unearthly wail, Seras stumbles to her feet, hands pressed to her head. Mata Nui… What have I done? The corona of lightning around the Toa of Time intensifies, warping space and time around her, bending reality, making impossibilities into fact. A wind, no, a gale, picked up, and I could feel it. It chilled me down to the very core, but neither the trees nor grass swayed. With a final burst of blinding light... ...all was still. “Oof! Aw, jeez, that smarts.” Kaixin! She came tumbling down from the air, having been frozen mid-jump. Anzix? Amea? They were well. Confused, but well. Tsukumi and Jata, too. The four Toa and the Le-Matoran had a subtle, orange glow around them that faded within seconds. Ah, so their Time had returned to them when I broke the Eighteenth Chronicle. Thank the Spirits. A delicate cough. “Seras!” I turn with my usual speed and am at her side in seconds. I, too, had been restored by the Chronicle. “Are you, uh, ok?” The Toa of Time sighs weakly. “Think so. I just feel, ah, tired. So tired.” “Hello, Seras.” The Time Toa cranes her neck to find my companion standing a little ways behind her. “Oh, “Mary”. Where were you?” “Oh, just hiding, waiting for all of this to blow over. So, I see you caused Xaedan some trouble, am I correct?” Seras stares at her feet and murmured something that might have been a confirmation. “Well, then, we can’t have that,” “Mary” replies gently with a small smile. With an ugly, ugly ripping sound, a claw extends from Seras’ chest. I saw everything, from the very moment the Toa of Time’s chest began to bulge outwards. The surprised little gasp that was soon swept away by the deafening wrench of “Mary”’s hand tearing through metal and flesh alike. Then, what happened after. The instant dimming of the heartlight. The strings of meat dangling from the claw. The loosened gears and wires that tumbled out, littering the forest floor. The crunch as the clawed hand was withdrawn. And, finally, the mundane thump Seras’s mutilated body made as she fell to the ground, never to rise again. I blink. “Uh… guys? Where are we?” “Beats me, fire-spitter,” Anzix calls. “Weren’t we on our way back from Faxis Beach?” Tsukumi huffs. “Then let’s get back home. I need to scrub all this filth from my armor, it’s just so gross. Let’s go, maggot.” Shrugging, I plod along after my team. I step on a small bit of rock. Looking down, I see a beautiful flower, pressed. It pick it up, turn it around a few times. Perhaps this flower had been pressed by that rock I just stepped on? No, it was too well handled. Must have been from some camper from before. It was a pristine white flower. I count six petals, each perfectly flattened, capturing the exquisite detail of the flower. I think it was lily? I’m not too good with plants. “Xae! Hurry up!” I look up to see “Mary” waving her arm, beckoning at me. “Coming, “Mary”!” I toss the flower away. Epilogue Welp. I guess that's that. I reach over and grab the remote, mashing the 'off' button. The flatscreen in front of me complies immediately, going dark. With a small groan, I stand and stretch my arms and back. Jolly good show. Truth be told, I was unsure if going in after Seras fell off the cliff and died was a good idea. What a way to go, dying just because she was finding some silly flower. There are just so many contestants already. Plus, making another Chronicle for her could very well have destabilized all my plans. This Game's complexity is rising off the charts, but, hey, it's always good to take a chance once in a while. And it seems as though my little gamble paid off. Seras was killed, the others came out alive, and all memories of her vanished. It's like nothing even happened. A time paradox, if you will. That's the Re-Matoran for you. Slippery little buggers. I spin around in my chair and point the remote at another monitor, one of many. The 'on' button is pressed and the screen flares to life. Back to watching over them. , , and . Zanywoop wrote most of the fourth spooky story and he wrote the action scene from Tsukumi's point of view. •The Brale system is the Bionicle equivalent of the Braille system. •Zanywoop was a bro and built the "gray husks". I always imagined undead Toa to be pure gray. }} Category:User:ChineseLegolas Category:Stories Category:Infernum